Our Golden Retriever Max, 6 years of age having undergone the snip managed to achieve enough weight gain to push him to 44kgs.
The recommended weight for an Adult Male Golden Retriver is between 30 and 35 kgs. Every vet we saw would point out that he was grossly overweight and this could shorten his life span, and aggravate his genetic predisposition to hip problems.
We were given a great deal of conflciting advice. "He needs more exercise", "he needs this special expensive fat inhibiting fluid",
"he needs this food for obese dogs"... it went on and on
What puzzled us was that he seemed extremely fit and active for a seemingly obese dog. He enjoyed swimming and we took him on regular long country walks. We cut down his food to two meals a day, the usual tinned food with a mixer that so many people feed their dogs plus the odd treat such as left over dinners. This seemed alright as he was getting so much exercise.
Admittedly he seemed a little larger but not obese?
After seeing yet another vet and being told yet agian he was overweight we decided that something had to be done!
We tried various different foods for overweight dogs to no avail;he wouldn't actually eat some of them.
In the process of getting our new working English Springer, Skye we noticed the excellent condition that the breeder's dogs were in. As an side Skye comes from an excellent Pedigree. Her father was Gaffer of EdgeGrove Gundogs -www.edgegrovegundogs.co.uk/.
Jeremy from Edgegrove had enthused about the litter of pups due from the breeder, Derek and Lynne from Bicester, sired by his dog Gaffer.
We asked them what they fed their Springers on and if it would help Max.
The advice we were given was that they fed their dogs on a Working dog mix and only one meal a day! This didn't seem enough for a big dog like Max but we decided to give it a go.
Some weeks later Max has shed 5kgs and is still losing weight. He has his one meal in the evening which he eats slowly and with relish.
Apart from the obvious weight loss we've noticed a marked improvement in his energy and enthusiasm.
Recently he has being clearing fairly sizeable stone walls!
In conclusion it seems that dogs do not these huge quantities of food and titbits to be healthy and happy.
We would recommend a nutritious but restricted food supply with plenty of varied exercise.
Thanks to Lynne and Derek and to Jeremy of EdgeGrove for putting us in touch!
KF & FK
This Web Page Created with PageBreeze Free HTML Editor